The Medical Research Council (MRC) Harwell Institute has a mission to use its expertise in mouse genetics and quality assured laboratory skills to provide training programmes to support the growth of knowledge and skills for UK technical and scientific staff, and so help bridge the training gaps in laboratory animal science and genetics.
The post-genomic era has seen a major escalation in the number of mice being used in UK research. The vast majority of the 3.87 million animals used in regulated procedures and recorded by the UK Home Office during 2015, were genetically altered (GA) mice. The use of GA mice is expected to increase with in the advent of projects sequencing many thousands of human patients to facilitate the creation of more specific and relevant pre-clinical models. While many medical research programmes rely, at least in part, on the use of mouse models, technical training in mouse genetics and in vivo skills is not easy to access in the UK. Well-trained laboratory and animal technicians are a vital requirement for reliable scientific outputs in laboratory animal science. Genetic science is moving at a fast pace and it is essential to ensure that technical staff keep up to date in their understanding of the science programmes they have to support.
Dr Sara Wells, Director of the Mary Lyon Centre at the MRC Harwell Institute, said:
“The MRC is seeking to provide a world-class research environment for medical research for which appropriately trained support staff, such as lab and animal technicians, and people with the required bioinformatics skills are critical. There is an increasing awareness and acknowledgement in academic and industry circles that there is a shortage of specialist laboratory and in particular animal technicians. The skills required by well-rounded animal technicians exceed animal care and handling expertise. These individuals often have to undertake and manage complex tasks, such as the husbandry of GA mice, highly specialised phenotyping and intricate dosing regimens.
These skills are taught in some nationally available courses, however, very few universities provide sufficient practical training for developing scientists as part of their degree curriculum. Scientists therefore often lack the confidence in carrying out these aspects of laboratory and animal work. The future of reproducible, high quality research, especially during this time of rapid technical developments (such as genome editing and phenotyping) will very much rely on well-informed, knowledgeable scientific staff who are competent in technical skills”.
The MRC Harwell Institute is comprised of the Mammalian Genetics Unit (MGU) and the Mary Lyon Centre (MLC). Since its establishment in 2002, the strategy for the MLC, in conjunction with the MGU has been to fully integrate animal care and husbandry with the scientific programmes it supports. Together these units provide a campus for scientific excellence and high-quality, standardised technical expertise that underpin major national and international projects such as the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC), the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA) and Genome Editing Mice for Medicine (GEMM). The various core services include mouse genetics and colony management, phenotyping, cryo-biology, microinjection, necropsy, histology, clinical pathology and bioinformatics. The Institute offers a unique training ground for an integrated vision of laboratory animal research in the UK.
MRC Harwell summer workshops
It is these scientific and technical skills that will be on offer through the MRC Harwell summer workshops.
- Introduction to inheritance
- Intermediate mouse genetics
- Conditional transgenics in the mouse
- Bioinformatics of mouse resources
- Laboratory skills for animal technicians
- Mouse necropsy practical training course
- Freezing mouse spermatozoa
- Embryo freezing by vitrification
- Mouse tissue cut-in and processing practical training course
- Collection and processing of mouse blood and urine samples
- Bioinformatics of mouse phenotyping data